Elizabeth Heyert

David A. Goldfarb

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I just came across the work of Elizabeth Heyert quite accidentally this evening in a cafe at a Borders Books. There was a journal that I'd never seen before called Guilt & Pleasure in a stack of random books and magazines on the seat next to me that had a portfolio from her project The Travelers--a collection of color portraits made with an 8x10" Deardorff of deceased persons elaborately dressed for their funerals at a Harlem funeral parlour.

Here is her website--

http://www.elizabethheyert.com/projects/
 

Kerik

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Didn't Serrano do some work like this about 10 years ago?
 
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David A. Goldfarb

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Andres Serrano did a series of photos of decaying bodies in morgues in the early 1990s, but that seems like a very different project, if that's the one you're thinking of.
 

Kerik

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Hmmm... I do remember those, but I thought there were also some that looked formally posed, like these do. I must be thinking of someone else...
 

SuzanneR

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Are you thinking of Joel Peter Witkin's work? Not my favorite photographer, and we've had a couple of long contentious threads about him, but he made these elaborate tableaux that involved corpses. Not nearly as dignified as the Heyert work shown here, I don't think. As an aside... with death as the subject, I saw a very powerful body of photographs that portrayed people shortly before they died... and then just after. I'll see if I can find it, but I can't remember if it was film based work or not, but it was black and white.

Ah... I found the link... still not sure if they are film pictures or not, but a powerful study of life and death, and somewhat similar to the Heyert work.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2008/mar/31/lifebeforedeath?picture=333325401
 
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loman

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I think Nicholas Nixon did something similar. He followed terminally ill patients in the months up to their death, and, if my memory serves me correct, he also took pictures when they were dead.
I didn't know elizabeth Heyert untill I saw this thread... I really like it, scarry and fun at the same time, great.
Thanks for making my world a little bigger Mr. Goldfarb.

Best Regards
Mads
 

Mick Fagan

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David and Suzanne, many thanks for those links, both of them are very interesting series.

Mick.
 
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